Q & A with Alison Maclean
Alison Maclean was at the Brisbane International Film Festival to present her new film, Jesus' Son. She talked to David Edwards about her film, inspiration, sex and television, and working with some of Hollywood's best actors - young and not-so-young.

David Edwards: You've had something of a chequered history; in the sense that you come from Canada originally, then you went to New Zealand and worked in Australia and you're now based in New York.

Alison Maclean: I have New Zealand parents and I moved there when I was 14. I didn't do that much work here [in Australia] - I wrote the script for Crush here when I was living here for about 2 or 3 years; and I did one episode of the "Seven Deadly Sins" ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation] series. I've been in New York for nearly eight years now.

DE: It must have been quite a culture shock going from New Zealand to New York?

AM: In a funny kind of way I felt quite accepted there; like I slotted into that film community pretty quickly. I knew a few people from festivals. New York is full of foreigners so that made it easier to crack in a way than Sydney.

DE: Did showing Crush at Sundance help to get you into that community?

AM: Yeah. Some people had seen it; and actually a few offers came my way pretty directly because of that film, I think.

DE: In Crush, Marcia Gay Harden played the lead role. In Jesus' Son you've got people like Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper and Samantha Morton. How does a second time filmmaker get these people to be in their film.

AM: We spent a long time on the casting - probably a two year period - but we were lucky with those particular people. Holly Hunter actually read the script just by chance. She knew Denis Johnson's work and she read it overnight and called us. She was willing to work for scale, which was very lucky. Dennis Hopper - we sent him a script and it took him a while to respond but he liked that story, he liked that particular scene and wanted to play Bill, and was also interested in working with Billy Crudup.

DE: Had you read Denis Johnson's book?

AM: I read it when it came out and really loved it! I was quite stunned by it and went on to read many of his other books and had a bit of an obsession with him after that. But I never thought of it as a film because it's a book of short stories and they are not particularly connected apart from the main character. Then I got a call from a producer at a company called Evenstar who had the option. He'd seen Crush and had a very definite idea about how to approach the adaptation; which was to expand Michelle's character and to create a kind of loose thread that would tie the stories together but not turn it into a linear narrative. They wanted to keep the separate "chapter headings" if you like.

DE: Did you find it difficult translating that type of work to the screen?

AM: Very, very difficult. It was very hard adaptation for all kinds of reasons. It just jumped all over the place, each story would introduce a whole new set of characters so there wasn't much connective tissue really in terms of story. There wasn't much plot and it was also hard because it is a classic fault in adapting a book that you start being too faithful to it. So it took a couple of drafts before the writers and myself could take the leap and start to invent a little bit more and be a bit bolder about the choices.

DE: One of the themes in Jesus' Son is this idea of the outsider in a world that he doesn't really comprehend or understand - which was something that you really started to explore in Crush with the American woman in New Zealand. Is this a theme that interests you; that you're particularly passionate about?

AM: I can see that you can make that comparison because he [FH] moves around all the time; but he is American and he is of that place. It is just that he is definitely someone who is on his own path.

DE: He doesn't even seem to be accepted in his own social group, apart from Michelle.

AM: He is a bit of an oddball and he is quite isolated and I guess I do identify with it. I've had that feeling quite a lot in my life partly from having moved a lot and feeling like wherever I lived I was in some way a foreigner because of my family situations. So yeah, I do understand that.

DE: Tell me about [the HBO TV series] "Sex and the City." You did the first two episodes ever of the show.

AM: There had been a pilot before but they basically said forget that just start again. I was involved with everybody else in sort of setting the tone for the whole series; although it hasn't really kept to that. I think they were interested in me because they wanted a film director, they wanted it to have more cinematic look, they wanted it to be unusual television - but I think that at a certain point that wasn't particularly economic. It's time consuming to shoot that way with that kind of care. They quickly told us we were being a little too extravagant and we had to kind of make it simple. I think they said shoot it like Seinfeld just link it with the comedy work.

DE: The reason I wanted to ask you about that is that there seem to be some stylistic similarities between those episodes of "Sex and the City" and Jesus' Son - particularly the way the individual characters are introduced, the way they talk about themselves, the way they interact with other people. Did you find television a good training ground to move into your second feature?

AM: Definitely. It's all great experience and it was fun to do comedy. I think I learned quite a bit you know. Comedy is very technical, it is so much about timing. That got me thinking about those things in a way that were perhaps helpful for the more comic parts of Jesus' Son. It also gets you used to a slightly faster pace of working and having to rehearse on the day on set which is not ideal but that was pretty much the way we shot Jesus' Son too.

DE: How did you come to cast Billy Crudup in the lead?

AM: He was at the first meeting where I met the producers - the very first meeting. We had seen him in theatre in New York and about three films and he was different in every film he did - you often don't recognise him. He's quite uncanny that way; but a formidable actor. We thought he had this quality that makes you care about him, he draws you in. He's charismatic; but more than that there's a heart about him. You engage with him as an actor and that was really important for his character because I think the way he was written he read at times a bit more antisocial and sometimes quite passive - someone you might not necessarily want to spend time with.

DE: There is a kind of vulnerability that he brings out in the film. Was that originally in the character?

AM: That was more of what he brought to it actually. It is definitely there in the book but I think he is a tougher character, he is more defensive and not quite so open, not so innocent. He's also capable of more aggression [in the book] than the character in the film.

DE: What about Samantha Morton?

AM: We saw her in Under the Skin but she is just amazing in that film, such a force. We were very excited and we thought that she was absolutely perfect for Michelle. So we sent her the script and she loved the character and immediately responded. She and came over and auditioned for it. Our only concern was the accent but she was very good at it.

DE: Was this before or after she had done Sweet and Lowdown?

AM: We cast her before she had done that film but she was actually in Sweet & Lowdown just before Jesus' Son.

DE: I have to ask, what was it like working with Jack Black?

AM: Amazing! Fantastic! He was so funny. He's one of the funniest people I've met and wonderful to work with. We knew Georgie had to be a really, really funny character because that is the one story in the book that you are laughing out loud at everything he says and does. We auditioned many people and he was the only one that really made us fall about laughing. He is fantastic to work with, very professional but just so inventive and wild in his humour and constantly surprises you.

DE: What do you hope audiences are take from Jesus' Son, because it is quite hopeful in the end?

AM: I guess I just hope that people take a trip with this person. It is hopeful in a way. I see the story being about a guy who opens his heart at the end and finds a place for himself. I just hope the film in some way opens up people; but beyond that really it is just to take that journey with him.